Zippidy doo da...

i know, i know- i ask you people to pray and then i don't give you an update. sorry.

Zippy-

She is alright other than having a bad experience at the hospital here. Aparently this hospital we had heard good things about is having some problems or SOMETHING. Or it could be that it is still a 3rd world hospital. Tuesday I picked up Thomas when it was still dark. We drove to hospital X in a matter of an hour and 20 minutes. Supposedly Zippy was to have had her surgery before we ever even got there. We found her laying in bed with 2 hands full of bruises and holes. Thomas and I both thought she had already had the surgery, only she had not. She said some "trainees" had stuck her 4 times trying to get an IV. "WHAT? You're veins are AWESOME!" (you know i'm one of those sick nurses that gawks at peoples veins, all but drooling).

Whatever. I guess I could get over that. The "trainees" also tried 3 flippin' times to put her catheter in. I suppose soon I'll be making my way to the pharmacy for some antibiotics for her UTI she's destined for. Grrr.

So at 8:30 they take my friend to the "theatre" aka OR waiting room. We were told to come back and check on her at 12:30. So we sat in the car for 3.5 hours, away from the germs, then went back inside to where we had left her sitting. Guess who was STILL sitting there- yep. Zipporah. She was in tears. Her IV was hurting and she had told people but no one cared. I looked at it and it was infiltrated- no doubt. She said they kept telling her it was fine. I promptly went to the nurse and told him that her IV was hurting and infiltrated and if he "doesn't take it out then I will." He gave me a glare and walked to her. He agreed it was infiltrated! Good, now we're getting somewhere! I showed him exactly where he could put the next one. huhuh... gotta love me- I'm such a pain in the butt when it comes to people I love. I gave her a quick pep talk and back rub assuring her everything was going to be fine. (why i didn't just go to the pharmacy before hand and get her some valium ,b/c it's OTC here, i don't know. I could kick myself!) We talked to the staff and like many nationals do they told us what we wanted to hear: "She's next. As soon as this emergency gets out of the OR." I understand emergencies, so whatever. Thomas and i went to the cafeteria to get something to eat about 1pm. We tried to joke a little while we attempted to stomach hairy ...hair infested ... locks of curls .....ehem... our food. (Okay so we just tried to pick out the hairy pieces. I mean come on people- it's hospital cafeteria food at it's worse. We really did try to eat it reminding ourselves people are starving.)

After we ate we went back to the theatre to see if Zippy had gone into surgery. Nope. Still sitting. She had been sitting on a dirty wooden bench for 6 hours being told she was "next". I was done. I starred at a man texting and smiling wondering if whatever he was doing was too important for me to interrupt. Finally I walked over and as politely as I could utter, I asked why in the world my friend had been sitting there for 6 hours. He was very nice and allowed me to look at the OR board telling me that the patients are numbers in the morning. That day, they had 7. Zippy was number 7. I asked if he had any type of time frame other than "next". He pointed to a Mzungu doctor and asked if i'd be willing to talk to her. So i walked over to her inquired about my friends' surgery. She told me 15-20min! And i felt like i could bank on that- she was an American and we all know what freaks we Americans are about our time. When asked to leave the OR waiting- as mannerly as i could i told them I'd like to stay to assure my friend would be going in this time. She finally went in and Thomas and I went to the waiting room. Thomas was so precious sitting there twiddling his thumbs and bitting his lip. He really was such a wonderful husband through this. So other than them also losing her chart, sitting in the OR waiting for 6 hours, being a pin cushion, crying her eyeballs out, and not receiving adequate pain meds, she's great!

I took a chicken pie (her favorite thing to eat is chicken) to them tonight because she just got home. She had a horrible, painful ride back in a Matatu (taxi van)- so she was in some pain, you can imagine. She felt really warm to me and was having some epigastric pain and "pulling" so she has very specific instructions to call me tonight and i will take her to the ER if need be.

She wanted me to tell everyone thank you so much for their prayers!